BRIEF DREAMGo where never beforeNo sooner there than there alwaysNo matter where never beforeNo sooner there than there always
A simple verse which summarises the late Samuel Beckett's attitude to his own life is among a collection of poetry, some of it never seen before, which was published in Galway last night.
The untitled verse was sent by the late writer to his biographer, James Nelson, several months before his death in 1989. Another verse, Brief Dream (see below) was sent by him on a postcard in the same month to his publisher, John Calder.
"I can't be sure in which order they were written, but they were the last piece of poetry he ever wrote," Mr Calder told The Irish Times yesterday.
"It suggests that he was throwing his life away as of not much importance."
Mr Calder, who was a friend of the writer and was his first and only English-language publisher, was in Galway to mark a unique collaboration with Kenny's Bookshops in the city.
His company has produced a special edition of what is described as the most comprehensive collection of Beckett's poetry published to date. The limited edition of 100 copies - 45 for sale in Ireland and 45 in Britain, with 10 hors de commerce - comes with a lithograph print by Louis Le Brocquy of one of his famous Beckett images.
Each edition costs €650 and is signed by the artist. The books have been specially bound by Mr Gerard Kenny of the bookshop family in quarter goatskin with raised banks, hand-tooled spine, top-edge gilt, marble board with matching slipcase.
There are also five artist's proofs of the lithograph.
Speaking at last night's function in Galway, on the eve of the late writer's birthday on April 13th, the writer and playwright, Mr Tom Kilroy, paid tribute to the joint publishers and said that the poems echoed a great variety of other writers. "As in the novels, there is also the same mixture of erudite language, fragments of prayers and curses, extraordinary precision of image with outbursts of raging obscenity," Mr Kilroy said. The publication showed how integrated the poetry was with the rest of his writing, he added.
Mr Kilroy referred to another of the final poems, entitled Comment Dire (What is the Word), which was "suffused" with "the eerie light of the late Beckett, an evening light before that fall of darkness". In a sense, Beckett had been asking that question without a question mark - What is the Word - from beginning to end, Mr Kilroy noted.
go end there
one fine day
where never till then
till as much as to say
no matter where
no matter when
Samuel Beckett, 1989.
Reproduced with permission of Calder Publications